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Roy was born on April 6, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois. As a child, he dreamed of becoming either a doctor or a football player—or, according to his early press releases, both. He began his career in show business at a radio station, handling various roles including engineering, DJing, news, and dramatizations, which sparked his interest in acting. After serving in the army, he moved to New York and then California, where he began appearing in television episodes. His professional acting debut came as a teenage arsonist in the 1957 pilot for the never-aired TV series "Chicago 212." Thinnes then endured several challenging years between jobs, working as a hotel clerk, vitamin salesman, and copy boy for Chicago columnist Irv Kupcinet. His first steady TV role was as Phil Brewer on the daytime soap opera General Hospital (1963). During this time, he became a television matinee idol, provoking a flood of protest letters when he briefly left the show to pursue other opportunities. Thinnes aggressively campaigned for the lead role of Ben Quick in The Long, Hot Summer (1965), the TV adaptation of the 1958 film, and secured the part, gaining a new wave of female admirers. Although the series was not successful, he found longer-lasting fame as David Vincent in the sci-fi series The Invaders (1967), reminiscent of The Fugitive (1963). His success on this show led to his marriage to his second wife, Lynn Loring, who co-starred with him on the series and in the film Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969); she later became a CBS film executive. They divorced in 1984. While Thinnes occasionally appeared in films such as Airport 1975 (1974), The Hindenburg (1975), and Blue Bayou (1990), he remained primarily a television star. After The Invaders, his TV roles included Dr. James Whitman on The Psychiatrist (1970), Capt. (later Maj.) Holms on From Here to Eternity (1980), Nick Hogan on Falcon Crest (1981)—who married Victoria Gioberti (Jamie Rose) in a highly rated 1983 episode—and the dual roles of Roger Collins and Rev. Trask in the 1991 prime-time revival of Dark Shadows. More recently, his appearances on The X-Files (1993) brought him back into the spotlight. He reprised his role as the mysterious alien Jeremiah Smith, a character series creator Chris Carter brought back for him in the February 25, 2001 episode, "This Is Not Happening.
